DENTIST FINDS CHALLENGE ON RESERVE DUTY IN GUYANA

Col. Eugene Maciol, a dentist who normally works in an air-conditioned clinic with modern equipment and highly skilled assistants, recently spent two weeks in Guyana treating people in thatched huts with dirt floors.

"It was tough," he said. "We had no lighting because we had no electricity. There were no X-rays, no running water, no fiber-optics, no suction, no sterilization techniques, no assistants. It was real 'cold steel' surgery."

Maciol, 53, went to Guyana as part of his duties as a colonel in the Army Reserves.

A reservist for 18 1/2 years, he is a dentist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Riviera Beach Outpatient Clinic.

"I volunteered for this trip," said Maciol, an Oakland Park resident.

"A reserve unit from Montana was scheduled to go to Guyana on this mission but it did not have a dentist. Normally, when units go overseas, they are supposed to be at 100 percent strength. When I found out that this one was short-handed, I volunteered," he said.

In Guyana, the Montana unit -- the 396th Station Hospital from Helena -- and its 100 doctors, nurses, and technicians set up shop on the islands of Wakenaam, Leguan and Hog. The islands have few medical facilities.

In addition to dental care, the reservists also provided medication and treatment for malaria, typhoid, cholera and other tropical diseases.

And they provided veterinary services to the livestock owned by the islanders.

The days were long, Maciol said.

"During our time there, we saw 1,004 patients and pulled more than 1,100 teeth," he said.

"It was quite an experience," he said. "It really opened my eyes. There were animals everywhere and all we had were buckets to drop the extracted teeth into. It was a helluva challenge."

Maciol's unit was the second contingent of Army Reserve medical personnel to go to Guyana this year. The first ran into foul weather, however, and was not able to get much work done.

"They went in two weeks ahead of us but they got caught in torrential rains and couldn't move for days," Maciol said.

"We went there from March 27 through April 10 and so we missed most of the rain. Not all of it, though. When we first got there we got hit with a downpour. We were on a landing craft named the USS Five Forks and we had no cover so we were all soaked," he said.

While living on the islands, Maciol and the other reservists worked with medical personnel from the Guyanese Defense Force and the Guyanese Ministry of Health.

"The mission was organized by top officials in conjunction with the U.S. Southern Command and the Guyanese government," Maciol said. "It all worked out very well. The people welcomed our services and we gained a lot of expertise in working together in a new and trying environment."

Maj. Gen. Roger Sandler, chief of the Army Reserve, said the mission was good for all concerned.

"This mission demonstrates what a partnership between two countries such as the United States and Guyana can accomplish," he said.

"While bringing needed health care to Guyana's citizens, a deployment exercise like this also provides Army Reservists with real-life mobilization experience," he said.

There were other benefits as well, Maciol said.

"The people were wonderful. Very friendly, very appreciative," he said. "They treated us very warmly."